02/29/2008
TowleTech V.94
In this week's tech news, Jon Barrett looks at the newest application designed to facilitate online activism, a ship of sinking Mazdas, 3-D maps of the moon, composting, and the first videogame to utilize Microsoft's 'surface' multi-touch technology which may appeal to those of you who spent your childhood evenings trapping lightning bugs in the backyard.
These 1,301 glowing florescent bulbs aren’t plugged in, they’re planted in a field in England and are being powered by the magnetic field produced by the power lines above. See more photos here.
Apple updated its MacBook Pro computer this week, most notably by adding a multi-touch pad. But if you’re planning on buying one and you live in New York City’s Williamsburg neighborhood, be careful. One Mac owner this week told Gawker about a house burglary —where the burglar took all the Apple products in the apartment but left behind a Dell notebook computer.
Wired.com’s Joshua Davis has a terrific feature up about the Cougar Ace, a cargo ship that flipped on its side in Alaskan waters. The piece, which includes a video, describes a sea-salvage team’s efforts to save the boat and its cargo—millions of dollars in Mazdas.
A Facebook application launched this week is taking a new approach to online activism. Called Ultimatums, it lets users float an idea, set an arbitrary “tipping point,” and then track group members’ commitment to the common goal. As Wired.com’s Underwire describes: “Instead of abstract ideas (like Facebook group Make Poverty History), Ultimatums lets users set concrete goals. The end result is a straightforward app designed to transform a vibrant online community into a vehicle for specific social change. For example, one group calls for Wal-Mart to provide health care benefits for its employees. If a million users sign up, all million pledge to boycott the company if the demand isn’t met. Each ultimatum is an online petition created by users that requires a tipping point of participants to induce action.”
And when you’re not busy changing the world, check out this video: How to Not Get Caught on Facebook.
Nokia and the University of Cambridge are showing off a new concept for a stretchable and flexible mobile device called Morph. The new concept phone, which is part of an online display in conjunction with the “Design of the Elastic Mind” exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, uses nanotechnology to allow users to “morph” the device into whatever shape the want.
If you want to compost but live in an apartment, check out this indoor compost, called NatureMill. It will process up to 120 pounds of food per month, and a red light will shine when the compost is ready to use—whether it’s for your houseplants or your window garden. And don’t worry about the smell; a built-in carbon filter absorbs the odor.
Seems that Obama-mania has resulted in a shortage of campaign paraphernalia, leading one supporter to create ObamaCycle, which is being touted as sort of a Craigslist for supporters of the Democratic presidential candidate. The site, which has nearly 900 registered users, is aimed at reusing Obama campaign materials rather than throwing them away. Users, who have to register and create a profile, can leave messages to each other on the site and advertise their material needs and offers on the front page.
TOWLETECH TUBE
ANDROID'S STREET VIEW: Things are progressing quite well for the Google phone.
CYBER CELEBRITY: A new vlog examines the phenomenon.
MOONSCAPE: A 3D map of the moon.
SURFACE APPEAL: A demo of Firefly, the first-ever game developed for Microsoft's Surface.
Sphere: Related Content
Posted 5:30 PM EST by Jon Barrett in TowleTech | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I'm working on a site to recycle Obama's farts. Wait! That's mainstream media's job—and a couple of rather famous gay blogs.
And if his "ideas" are mostly junk food, maybe we could use his manure to fertilize barren lands and "feed the world...feed the children...it's gonna be a brighter day just you wait and see...."
Posted by: Michael Bedwell | Feb 29, 2008 5:51:39 PM
Michael Bedwell-
The statement that the mainstream media supports Obama is the most ignorant thing I have heard so far in 2008. If Obama had ever lost ELEVEN elections in a row at any point in this race, the mainstream media would be calling him defeated and would be asking him when he was planning on stepping down from the race. The fact that Hillary is still considered a contender amazes me.
Posted by: Jake | Feb 29, 2008 6:31:05 PM
Recycling campaign stuff from states that have already voted is good.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Feb 29, 2008 6:32:23 PM
“The Obama Messiah Watch” by Timothy Noah, Slate. “Introducing a periodic feature considering evidence that Obama is the Son of God. Is Barack Obama the second coming of our Savior and our Redeemer, Prince of Peace and King of Kings, Jesus Christ? His press coverage suggests we can't dismiss this possibility out of hand. I therefore inaugurate the Obama Messiah Watch, which will periodically highlight gratuitously adoring biographical details that appear in newspaper, television, and magazine profiles of this otherworldly presence in our midst. Readers are invited to submit similar details—Obama walking on water, Obama sating the hunger of 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes—from other Obama profiles. And also, of course, to repent, just in case the hour approacheth nigh.
DUG JAZZ WHEN HE WAS STILL A MIDDLE SCHOOLER!!! …from a Feb. 8 profile in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin by B.J. Reyes. …Reyes' scoop? "Barry" (as he was then known) became a jazz buff WHILE STILL IN JUNIOR HIGH! …Reyes is a little vague about precisely what jazz records Barry would listen to at that tender age. … In the unlikely event Barry was grooving on Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come or Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity, then dig it, baby. This cat's the messiah.
TOOK VERY FEW NOTES IN CLASS!!!…from a Los Angeles Times profile by Larry Gordon about Obama's two years at Occidental College …[classmate Ken] Sulzer said he was impressed at HOW FEW NOTES OBAMA TOOK!
…MASTERED LAWS GOVERNING UNIVERSE!!! ..,from a Jan. 27 Associated Press feature by Glen Johnson: Obama analyzed and integrated Einstein's theory of relativity, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, as well as the concept of curved space as an alternative to gravity, for a [Harvard] Law Review article that [Prof. Laurence] Tribe wrote titled, "The Curvature of Constitutional Space." BY THIS MEASURE, THOUSANDS OF REASONABLY BRIGHT HIGH-SCHOOL STUDENTS ACROSS THE UNITED STATES ARE DESTINED TO BECOME PRESIDENT. (AP's Johnson gets extra credit for redundancy: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity includes the concept of curved space.)
DO SPACE ALIENS ADVISE OBAMA? … a Rolling Stone profile by Ben Wallace-Wells: ‘[Obama] is sitting in his Senate office, dangling one leg over the other knee and speaking very, very slowly. It's not just that Obama searches for the right word; it's that the search seems to TAKE HIM TO DISTANT WORLDS.’ Wallace-Wells doesn't flat-out say so, but the implication is that OBAMA IS IN TELEPATHIC COMMUNICATION WITH SPACE ALIENS in distant galaxies whose vastly superior intelligence enables them to game the maddeningly compressed new primary calendar. This is just the sort of thing you'd expect THE MESSIAH TO DO.
OBAMA CALMS TURBULENT IOWANS!!! ‘Paul Tewes, Obama's Iowa coordinator, marveled, "It is something I've never seen before in politics. AFTER PEOPLE HEAR HIM SPEAK, THEY SAY THAT THEY FEEL AT PEACE.’ Does Tewes' unusual choice of words demonstrate that OBAMA IS THE PRINCE OF PEACE? Just asking.
OBAMA: BETTER THAN CIVIL RIGHTS!!! Stuart Taylor Jr. of National Journal: ‘[I]t is beyond debate that an Obama win in 2008 would be by far the best thing that has happened to African-Americans, and to race relations, in MORE THAN 50 YEARS.’ This is a remarkable statement because nearly all the achievements of the 20th-century civil rights movement occurred WITHIN the last 50 years."
http://obamamessiah.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Michael Bedwell | Feb 29, 2008 9:15:11 PM
See, this is why he's going to win.
Also, damn: we are living in the future we were promised! Confusing gel-phones that are actually bracelet-itune-players or something! Obama! Compost robots! Whee!
Posted by: oakling | Mar 1, 2008 1:05:44 AM
Michael
I am an obamahead and an atheist. How do I fit into the messiah watch thing?
PS
Resistance is futile, you and your technolgy will be assimilated to complient the borg, I mean the Obamaheads.
:-)
You will be one of us.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Mar 1, 2008 2:53:28 PM
not feeling the google phone, still can't touch the iphone
Posted by: davey | Mar 3, 2008 12:51:46 PM